Friday 8 January 2010

Rediscovering snow

Well, sort of... I don't want to turn this into a weather blog and I know it is not particularly original to blog about the current weather. But I was not expecting the snow to stay for that long here.

Since I have been living in England, I got used to see snow only around Christmas, when I got back to Québec. During my studies here, there were the few odd snow storms, but nothing that lasted more than a day or two. Now, I almost feel at home. Snow fell heavily, it stayed, there is ice on the pavement and roads and the air is cold. I find it much more bearable at this temperature than if it was slightly warmer, but wet and accompanied with heavy rains. It feels almost weird to have snow post Christmas. I had forgotten how it felt, hence the title.

There is one huge difference between this winter and the one in Québec: here, everything is on a standstill. It is not nearly as bad as the ice storm of 1998 (we have electricity running, after all), but schools are closed, roads are treacherous (I am not being original here, "are treacherous" is used on every news channel, wish they could find some synonyms), travelling is therefore hasardous and avoided, etc. So far, I can cope with the situation: I don't have to work (although it is sad, as I love my new job), my wife has to work from home (I wouldn't let her drive or even take the train even if she wanted to) so I can spend more time with her, I can get on my the pile of books I want to read and well, there is the snow. I could enjoy it better if I had a warmer winter coat (as I said here), but hey, it is still bearable.

2 comments:

PJ said...

Une photo satelitte de la Grande-Bretagne couverte de neige.

Gwen Buchanan said...

I see this on the news very often and so surprised that the snow has stayed on the ground so long over there too.. very unusual.. people will have to start putting snow tires on their cars..

hope they are getting the roads cleared enough... stay safe...